#
Parts of this paper were presented at the World Pornography Conference:
August 7, 1998, Sheraton Universal Hotel, Universal City, California.Portions
of this paper have been published in the International Journal of Law
and Psychiatry (Diamond and Uchiyama, 1999-22(1):1-22.)[Ver. 6.8.1 Refs./en]

Introduction

Some background

Effects of pornography

Sex crime data

Japan

Comments on Japanese data: Comparisons

Shanghai, China

United States

General discussion

Conclusions

Tables

Table 1. Sex crime statistics for Japan

Table 2. Rape in Japan

Table 3. Cases of rape in Shanghai, China

Table 4. Female Rape: Victimization Rates, United States

Table 5. Rates of Criminal Victimization, 1993-1996, United States

References

End notes

Real-Life World Effects of Pornography:Relation to Sex Crimes

For
those who wish to study the effects of pornography, real-world studies
seem rare. Depending upon the field of the experimenter and his/her
expertise, different research methods are employed.

Teaching
psychologists usually use random samples of people but most often
employ students, either volunteers or not, as subjects, These subject
are then presented with a sequence of exposures to different media,
usually video or film clips for varying periods of time. Then some
paper and pencil test or artificial situation is fabricated to measure
what the experimenter thinks is a reflection of the subject's
experience. The experimenter can ask of the subject's subsequent
masturbation, or coital frequency, attitudes toward hypothetical
situations or even place the subject into a manipulated situation in
which he or she is supposedly reacting in a way molded by the exposure
experience. This is often contrived with the use of a confederate to
goad the subject to react. Examples of such studies are those of
Zillmann and Bryant (Zillmann, 1984; Zillmann & Bryant, 1982; 1984;
Zillmann & Weaver, 1989), Malamuth & Donnerstein (Donnerstein,
1984; Donnerstein, Donnerstein, & Evans, 1975; Donnerstein, Linz,
& Penrod, 1987; Malamuth & Donnerstein, 1984).

Another
research technique, somewhat closer to the real world, is often used by
clinicians. These investigators interview persons who have committed
some sort of sex offense and compare their experiences with pornography
with those who have not committed sex crimes. Here come to mind the
work of Abel (Abel, Barlow, Blanchard, & Guild, 1977; Abel &
Becker, 1985; Abel, Mittelman, & Becker, 1985), Becker (Becker
& Stein, 1990; 1991) and Kant and Goldstein (1970) (Goldstein,
Kant, Judd, Rice, & Green, 1971; Goldstein & Kant, 1973).

Comparably,
one can research either the victim of sex crimes or interview police
investigators and record how pornography might or might not have
figured in any criminal incident. Unfortunately, there is usually no official police record kept of the (more common) occasions when no pornography is
involved while it is common to record when it is found to be involved.
These studies consist mostly of anecdotal or hearsay materials with
little or no control on recall, bias, or selection of spokespersons
interviewed. Crusaders for either side of the issue on pornography are
fond of this anecdotal "research" technique. Most noted for using such
stories on the anti-porn side, those for censorship, are the
sex-negative feminists Andrea Dworkin (Dworkin, 1981; 1985; Dworkin
& MacKinnon, 1988) and Catherine MacKinnon (MacKinnon, 1989; 1993)
the members of "Women Against Rape" (WAR) and members of "Women Against
Pornography" (WAP). Also notable here is Susan Brownmiller (1975) and
her well known work Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape.

Those
against censorship also use this technique, although much less
frequently. They include authors such as Beatrice Faust (1980) with her
book Women, Sex and Pornography. Usually, those against
censorship show how it is devastating to art, education and social
order. That approach is exemplified by such groups as "Women Against
Censorship," the Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force (FACT) and the
"National Coalition against Censorship (NCAC)."1

An
excellent research technique, only occasionally used due to its cost,
is to interview a cross-section of "normal" randomly chosen individuals
and compare the experiences of those who have voluntarily consumed
pornography with those who have not. Large selected populations too can
be canvessed, Investigators who use this technique search to see if
more of those exposed to sexually explicit materials (SEM) were
involved with sex crimes or other anti-social activities than those who
have not been similarly exposed. It may be difficult to get honest
answers to actual illegal or anti-social behaviors such as rape, child
or spouse abuse, however. Polls and surveys, if done well,
nevertheless, often approach this technique. Gebhard, Gagnon, Pomeroy,
& Christenson (1965), Smith (Smith & Hand, 1987), Diamond and
Dannemiller (1989), Lauman, Gagnon, Michael and Stuart (1994) and
others have used this method. Major national opinion polls typically
use such techniques.

Lastly, one can compare
how pornography has effected total societies when the material has gone
from being illegal and relatively scarce to being legal and plentiful.
Or vice versa; one can investigate what happens when a community goes
from having relatively large amounts of sexually explicit materials to
relatively small amounts. Researchers using this technique question:
"What happens over the years to sex crimes and other anti-social
activities?" These comparisons can also be made, within a single
society, where different geographical areas --individual states or
provinces for instance-- have relatively large amounts of pornography
in contrast with those that have little or none. Perhaps the best known
of these societal studies are the works of Berl Kutchinsky of Denmark
who studied different countries [see, e.g., Kutchinsky, 1978; 1985a;
1990; 1991].

This paper focuses on these last
types of studies. It will attempt to show how the prevalence of
pornography in a locale has or has not had an influence on sex crimes,
particularly rape. The focus on rape reflects the opinion of those most
opposed to available pornography. They claim the more sexually explicit
material present in a community, the more rape. Or, as it has been
alleged: "Pornography is the theory and rape is the practice." (Morgan,
1980). Findings around the world are reviewed with initial attention to
the countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. Then, I focus on Japan,
a country quite different from those in the West. In regard to
pornography, in Japan the swing from prudish and restrictive to
relatively permissive and nonrestrictive was dramatic. Some limited
data from Shanghai and new data from the United States follow. Several
conclusions are then offered. These real world types of findings most
accurately reflect the broad crime-related effects pornography has on
modern societies.

Pornography, is a term in popular use but can also be a legal term. For the purposes of simplicity in the present discussion, pornography
is broadly defined as any sexually explicit material primarily
developed or produced to arouse sexual interest or provide erotic
pleasure. It can be so-called soft-core or hard-core and it can extend
from pin-ups which might be offensive to XXX fetish or materials
involving children (so-called "child-porn"). The term is often, in
itself, seen as perjurative. I view it as neutral. It can be in any
media and it might be legal or illegal. Pornography, to be illegal,
generally has to further be found obscene. Here too obscenity is a legal term and each jurisdiction, e.g., country, province or state, defines such material differently.

SOME BACKGROUND:

In
the 1960s the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings that dramatically
changed how our country was to, thereafter, deal with censorship. These
were rulings regarding the imported books: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill
(Rembar, 1968). Before 1966 these books could not legally be published
in America; afterwards writings that had literary merit were no longer
to be considered obscene regardless if they contained material
considered sexually explicit. These books and others like them not only
became available but widely popular and are still considered as
classics. (Suffice it to say that, in their time, and later, proven
literature such as Aristophanes, Balzac, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Galileo,
Maimonides, Ovid, Shakespeare, Socrates, Spinoza and Swift have all
suffered from the censor's prejudice.)

The
response to the Supreme Court decision regarding these now recognized
literary treasures, from the conservative, moralistic populace (a
possible majority at the time), was outrage and fear that obscenity
would flood the country. The New York Daily News fueled some of this with a headline that read "BLAME COURTS FOR FLOOD OF PRINTED FILTH." Significantly, two years later, The Wall Street Journal published an article on the Daily News detailing how the News
attained their readership, the second largest in the nation, by
exploiting -you guessed it- sex in its photos and stories (Rembar,
1968). But the stage was set. There was a clamor against pornography
and an attempt to identify what was obscene. In response to this
clamor, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a commission to study the
problem.

This presidential Commission reported
(Pornography, 1970), no such relationship of pornography leading to
rape or sexual assault could be demonstrated as applicable for adults
or juveniles. This Commission , chaired by William B. Lockhart, past
President of the Association of American Law Schools, sponsored various
surveys and research studies and concluded: "In sum, empirical research
designed to clarify the question has found no evidence to date that
exposure to explicit sexual materials plays a significant role in the
causation of delinquent or criminal behavior among youth or adults. The
Commission cannot conclude that exposure to erotic materials is a
factor in the causation of sex crime or sex delinquency (pp. 27)."2 Indeed, the Commission concluded that pornography has a sex education effect that can be beneficial.

When
President Ronald Reagen entered the White House, to placate his
conservative constituency, he rejected the findings of the President
Johnson Commission and, in 1984, appointed a commission to be headed by
his Attorney General.3
In 1986 the findings of this United States' Attorney General's
Commission were released (Meese, 1986). This commission found, in
contrast with the previous Presidential Commission, that: "substantial
exposure to sexually violent materials . . . bears a causal relationship
to antisocial acts of sexual violence and, for some subgroups, possibly
to unlawful acts of sexual violence (pp. 326) [emphasis mine]." In
distinction to the Presidential Commission, however, this Attorney
General's Commission was politically, not scientifically, constituted.4

This
"Meese" Commission was primarily composed of nonscientists who did no
research of their own and commissioned none. It solicited testimony
mainly from specific parties and organizations which it anticipated
would be sympathetic to its goals while ignoring testimony from those
it suspected would be disagreeable. Many critics took this Meese
Commission to task for the bias of their work; e.g., Lab (1987), Lynn
(1986) and Nobile & Nadler (1986).

The
Meese Commission's own minority report, by two of the only three women
on the panel (Judith V. Becker, & Ellen Levine), --one of whom had
a great deal of experience in sex research with sex criminals (JVB) --
dissented from the majority report in saying the findings were not in
keeping with the amassed social science data (Meese, 1986) The
statistical methods as well as research methods were also significantly
found wanting (Smith, 1987). Parenthetically, nation-wide studies in
the United States, done essentially at the same time as the Meese's
Commission's work, also seemed to find no strong evidence that rape
rates were associated with porn as measured by circulation rates of
pornographic magazines or the presence of adult theaters in a community
(Baron & Strauss, 1987; Scott & Schwalm, 1988a, b).5

In
Britain, the privately constituted Longford Committee (Amis, Anderson,
Beasley-Murray, & al., 1972) reviewed the pornography situation in
that nation and concluded that such material was detrimental to public
morals. It too dismissed the scientific evidence in favor of protecting
the "public good" against forces that might "denigrat(e) and devalu(e)
human persons." The officially constituted British (Williams) Committee
on Obscenity and Film Censorship, however, in 1979 analyzed the
situation and reported (Home Office, 1979): "From everything we know of
social attitudes, and have learnt in the course of our enquires, our
belief can only be that the role of pornography in influencing the
state of society is a minor one. To think anything else . . . is to get
the problem of pornography out of proportion (p. 95)."

A
1984 Canadian study found similarly. A review by McKay and Dolff for
the Department of Justice of Canada reported "There is no systematic
research evidence available which suggests a causal relationship
between pornography and the morality of Canadian society . . . [and
none] which suggests that increases in specific forms of deviant
behavior, reflected in crime trend statistics (e.g., rape) are causally
related to pornography (McKay & Dolff, 1985)." The Canadian Fraser
Committee, in 1985, after a review of the topic, concluded the evidence
so poorly organized that no consistent body of evidence could be found
to condemn pornography (Canada, 1985).

Among
those European/Scandinavian societies investigated for any relation
between the availability of pornography and rape or sexual assault,
again no such correlation could be demonstrated (Kutchinsky, 1985a;
1991). For the countries of Denmark, Sweden and West Germany6,
the three nations for which ample data were available at the time,
Kutchinsky analyzed in depth the crime statistics and pornography
availability for the years from approximately 1964 to 1984. Kutchinsky
showed that as the amount of pornography increasingly became available,
the rate of rapes in these countries either decreased or remained
relatively level. These countries legalized or decriminalized
pornography in 1969, 1970 and 1973 respectfully. In all three countries
the rates of nonsexual violent crimes and nonviolent sex crimes (e.g.,
peeping, flashing) essentially decreased also.

According
to Kutchinsky, only in the United States did it appear that, in the
1970s and early 1980s as the amount of available pornography increased,
did some increase in rape occur (Kutchinsky, 1985a; 1991). But
Kutchinsky also noted a change in how rape was recorded which could
account for the apparent increase in the American sex crime rate.

Following
Kutchinsky's work no other large scale study has been reported.
Considering the volume and intensity of debate still current in Europe
and the United States and elsewhere surrounding the possible link
between pornography and sex crimes it is valuable to see how another
nation, one quite different from those in the West, compares in the
availability of SEM and the occurrence of rape and other sex related
crimes. Japan, an Asian culture with its ancient tradition of male
prerogative and female subservience and 13 year post World War II
period of legal prostitution provided a sufficient cultural contrast to
that of the United States and the other Western countries investigated
(see Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999).

Presently
in Japan, sexually explicit materials which cater to all sorts of
erotic interests and fetishes are readily available. These include
video tapes, books, and magazines as well as sexually obvious comic
books (manga) without age restrictions as to availability.
Public phone booths in commercial areas and city newspapers contain
advertisements for sexual liaisons of every sort.

However,
this availability of modern pornography is relatively new. Essentially
since the end of World War II with the imposition of American military
rules, which lasted until 1951, there was prohibition of any sexually
explicit material. In Japan almost all sexually explicit visual
material was seen as legally obscene. This continued under the Japanese
government into the late 1980s; until then, images or depictions of
frontal nudity were banned as were pictures of pubic hair or genitals.
No sex act could be depicted graphically.

There
are many indications that document an increase in the number and
availability of sexually explicit materials in Japan over the years
1972-1995. Under the auspices of "Juvenile Protective Ordinances"
formulated within and for each prefecture (except Nagano prefecture),
data had been collected of items that might be "considered harmful for
juveniles." Once items are so designated they are forbidden to be sold
or distributed to minors under 18 years of age. Collected by local
authorities, these are statistics on items such as sexually explicit
films, books, magazines and video tapes. It also included explicitly
violent materials. These data are forwarded yearly to the Youth
Authority in Somicho (Government Management and Coordination
Agency). Items so listed increased almost four-fold from some 20,000
items in 1970 to roughly 76,000 in 1996, the last year for which such
data are available. Since 1989 the greatest increase in such materials
were accounted for by sexually explicit video tapes. Despite any such
categorization, these materials remain readily available to persons of
any age.

The main concern, however, was not
against videos but against sexually explicit comic books available to
children. Conservative groups and the media began to call for
government action to stem the rising tide of pornography they saw
occurring. For instance the citizens of Wakayama prefecture loudly
called for the control of sexually explicit manga directed at children (Mainichi-shinbun, 1990).7

For
reasons that are unclear, these calls were not effectively heeded.
Indeed, while the laws themselves were not modified, interpretation of
them changed. Judges during this period became increasingly liberal
allowing more pornography of wider scope to be considered "not
obscene." Concomitantly with this, as might be reflected by the widely
reported uproar regarding a case of rape by American servicemen of a
young Okinawa girl in 1995, this crime is taken quite seriously in
Japan (Desmond, 1995).

In 1991, twenty-one
prefecture governments designated 46 specific sexually-oriented
publications as being "harmful to juveniles" and complained of them to
the publishers (Burrill, 1991). The companies involved accepted the
criticism and its industry's "Publishing Ethics Council" voted for self
regulation and advised its member firms to place an "Adult Comics" mark
on sex oriented manga (Anonymous, 1991a). The Council further
advised their distributors to maintain these comics in the "adult
corner" of their stores. This advice was not always followed. Sales of
such sex-filled comics totaled more than ¥ 180 billion in 1990, a
figure up 13 percent from the year before (Burrill, 1991).

Production of the classic Japanese love film Ai no corrida
("In the Realm of the Senses") was banned from Japan due to its nudity
and erotic content. This film by Nagisa Oshima was produced in France
in 1976 and quickly became a sensation at film festivals in New York
and Cannes. When first shown in Japan, however, in October of 1976, the
film was seized by authorities. Based on a true story well known in
Japan, its content --involving the vivid depiction of asphixiophilia--
was, nevertheless, considered too obscene for public viewing in Japan.
The producer and script writer were taken to court and charged with
obscenity but found not guilty (Okudaira, 1979; Oshima, 1979; Uchida,
1979). A cut expurgated version of the film was subsequently released.
Frontal nudity was permitted to appear on film for the first time at
the 1986 Tokyo film festival (Downs, 1990).

The American college sex text book Sexual Decisions
(Diamond & Karlen, 1980) was republished in a Japanese edition in
1985 (Diamond & Karlen, 1985). Depictions of sexual positions and
other images were allowed only after the book was edited to reduce the
number of illustrations with pubic hair or exposed genitalia. It was
the first college level sex text in that country. The first art photo
book with full frontal nudity of women was also published in 1985
(Downs, 1990). As with the text, Sexwatching, a trade book
for general readership illustrated with some 300 images, first
published in England and the United States in 1984 (Diamond, 1984) was
published in Japanese in 1986 (Diamond, 1986). Again, several of the
original illustrations, considered middle-of-the-road in the United
Kingdom and the United States, had to be replaced with images
considered less sexually explicit.

Change in
Japan from the conservative posture of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s
began to most markedly shift toward permissive in the late 1980s and
early 1990s. Magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse,
due to their display of public hair, were banned totally in Japan until
1975. They were then allowed to be imported into Japan if the offending
images of genitalia were "sand-papered" or otherwise rendered opaque.

This
original ban against the display of pubic hair was applied so routinely
that objective commentators noted that obscenity standards occasionally
blocked distribution of serious art works but were ineffective in
slowing the increasing availability of sexually explicit materials
(Anonymous, 1992). In June 1991 the Japan Times described the
influx of pornographic comics into the market as showing a rampant
growth that "depict sexual perversions and violence, including the
utter debasement of women, in graphically appalling detail even if
pubic hair is not shown." (quoted in Woodruff, 1991). Almost
simultaneously, the Asahi Shinbun newspaper reported that
police would no longer prosecute "pubic hair" pictures for obscenity
since the social trend has moved to accept photos of this type and
concluded "the decision not to prosecute indicates that pubic hair is
no longer a uniform standard for obscenity" (Woodruff, 1991).

In
the early 1980s, European and American pornographic video tapes were
the most prevalent form of contraband seized by Japanese custom agents
from travelers returning from aboard (Abramson & Hayashi, 1984).
These materials were routinely confiscated. Now such tapes are locally
produced and available. They often contain minors as actresses. There
is a "Child Welfare Law" in Japan which prohibits child prostitution.
However, there are no specific child pornography laws in Japan and SEM
depicting minors (particularly uniformed school girls) is readily
available and widely consumed. Most charges of obscenity presently are
related to portrayal of group or violent rape or realistic and graphic
film or video descriptions of sexual behaviors considered deviant and
dangerous (as in Ai no corrida).

In 1989 a survey of manga
in book shops and magazine stalls by a voluntary citizen's group, the
"Tokyo Bureau of Citizens and Cultural Affairs," found that more than
half of the stories depicted sex acts. They reported: "in many cases,
female characters were treated simply as sex objects for the
satisfaction of men" (Anonymous, 1991a).

Again
in 1989, a report by the Japanese "Publishing Science Research
Institute" presented statistics for the legal production of Japanese
publications. Playboy and Penthouse were among the best selling adult men's magazines. Semi-annual sales figures for Playboy
averaged some 900,000 monthly for each issue in 1977. The monthly value
of magazines with sexual content increased from ¥ 3,264 million in 1984
to ¥ 3,665 million in 1988 (Shupan Nenkan, 1988, 1997).

In February 1991 the Liberal Democratic Party asked its members to introduce legislation to regulate sexually explicit manga
(Anonymous, 1991a). The motion failed but again served notice that the
increase in pornography available to children was of widening social
concern. In that year a "Survey on Comics among Youth" by the "Japanese
Association for Sex Education" (J.A.S.E., 1991) found that among Middle
School students 21.6 percent of males and 7.6 percent of females
regularly read "porno-comics." In 1993 a survey by the Youth Authority
of Somucho (Government Management and Coordination Agency) (Somucho,
1993) found that approximately 50 percent of the male and 20 percent of
the female Middle and Upper High School students were found to
regularly read "porno-comics."8

Another index of sex related materials available in Japan might be reflected in the number of sex related industries (fuuzoku kanren eigyou)
registered with and monitored by the police. These industries include
strip theaters, so-called "love hotels" (rooms available by the hour),
"adult" sex shops (for the purchase of pornography or paraphernalia
associated with sexual activities, and "soap lands" ("massage" or
"shampoo" parlors known to offer sexual services). The authorities use
such statistics in monitoring potential influences on minors. According
to statistics from Roposensho, the Japanese National Police
Agency (J.N.P.A.), an organization akin to the American Federal Bureau
of Investigation (F.B.I.), these numbered approximately 7,500
establishments in 1972 and more than 12,600 in 1995. The largest
segment increase was seen in the number of so-called "fashion massage
parlors" in operation which offered sexual services. A newer type of
"body shampoo parlor" is also now available (Roposensho, 1995).

Telephone
sex lines have become increasingly common. In the first 18 month period
since they started operation, a commercial business information
service, "Dial Q2", which at first provided sports results,
advertisements and medical guidance, in 1991 switched more than
one-fourth of its lines to telephone sex services (Anonymous, 1991b).
This remains a popular form of sexual commerce even though, unlike here
in the United States where anyone can call such services, individual
households must initiate a special request to even participate.
"Telephone clubs" have also proliferated. In such clubs men wait for
calls from girls and women. The phone numbers to call are widely
advertised as free for the female caller; "excitement" and "romance"
are promised. This is often an outlet for prostitution contacts (Stroh,
1996). It is also of general social concern since informal surveys by
the police have found that some one-fourth of high school girls have
made contact via a telephone club.

While, in
1992, authorities occasionally continued to cite magazines and
newspapers for public indecency if they showed nude pictures, or if
genitals or any pubic hair were visible, police confiscation became
uncommon and prosecutions inconsistent. Peculiarly these legal
challenges might have occurred even when these images were clearly
artistic works (Anonymous, 1992). By 1993 that type of prosecution
became rare.

In 1993 the Shukan Post
became Japan's top-selling magazine. This appeared due to photos
containing glimpses of pubic hair and feature photos of nude girls and
articles on sex. Circulation jumped from about 850,000 in the first six
months of 1993 to about 867,000 for the first six months of 1996. This
popularity spawned two additional magazines which were even more
sexually explicit: Shukan Bunshum and Shukan Shincho. In 1995 these magazines had average weekly sales of more than 600,000 copies (Shupan Nenkan, 1988, 1997).

The
changing public attitude toward pornography might be considered
reflected by the number of police cases where the arresting charge was
"distribution of obscene materials." Despite the rise in available SEM,
arrests and convictions for the distribution of obscene materials
significantly declined in Japan from 3,298 in 1972 to 702 in 1995 (Roposensho, 1995) [Table 1].

Currently,
not only are visuals with pubic hair and exposed genitalia present, but
available are cartoon images of hard-core sexual encounters in manga
as well as in adult reading materials. These can be pictures and
stories involving bestiality, sadomasochism, necrophilia and incest;
the characters involved may be adults, children or both. Essentially,
anything goes.

Two additional measures of
erotica available in Japan are noteworthy. The first is that reported
by Greenfeld (1994) that approximately 14,000 "adult" videos were being
made yearly in Japan compared with some 2500 in the U.S. And the
average Japanese watched nearly an hour more of TV a day than did
Americans. The second measure is a recent report by Keiji Goto, a senior official at the Japanese National Police. Roposenshoestimates
that about 1200 commercial child pornographic internet sites exist in
Japan. And there are no anti-child porn laws in Japan (Anonymous,
1998a). And while a bill to outlaw child-porn, on and off the internet,
was introduced into the Diet in 1998 the bill did not make it onto its
agenda and is not likely to come up for consideration (Anonymous,
1998a).

EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY:

While
all these changes were occurring we investigated how the occurrence of
sex crimes in general and rape in particular correlated with the
increasing availability of pornography. For comparison and as "control"
measures the incidence of Murder and nonsexual Violent crimes
for the same period was looked at. We particularly attended to any
influence the introduction of widely available pornography might have
had on juveniles (Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999).

The
period chosen for investigation includes the twenty-three years from
1972 to 1995. These are years for which official data from Japan are
available. Prior to 1972 the data collection methods and associated
definitions used in Japan were significantly different from those
presently in use and are not suitable for comparison. These years, 1972
- 1995, cover a time period during which Japan transitioned from a
nation whose laws, or their interpretation, relating to pornography
changed from sexually prudish to a country whose sex censorship laws
can now be classified as permissive.

In
application, when Japan was in its prudish phase, not only might
pornography include so-called hard core erotica, but until the 1970s
and into the 1980s this included material that graphically presented
genitals, pubic hair, or frontal nudity. Depictions of any sexual act
in educational material or work of art might fall under this
definition. Public and official attitudes toward such materials,
appeared to gradually relax from the 1970's on. Particularly in the
years 1990 and 1991, major shifts became apparent in how this law was
interpreted; fewer materials were being charged as obscene and even
fewer convictions obtained. The reasons for this shift are not obvious.

The
jury system is not used in Japan. Final determination of which
materials or acts meet any criteria of criminality are typically
decided by a panel of 3 judges to whom the material or incident is
presented. In Japan, the laws are applied nationally but often
interpreted regionally; judges in the cities are often more lenient
regarding pornography than are those in rural areas. To promote
uniformity across the country, approximately every three years the
judges are rotated to a different prefecture. As in other countries,
initial determination of criminality is first made at a lower level,
e.g., the local policeman or custom agent. Alleged obscene material is
confiscated with a determination of actual obscenity to be made later.

PORNOGRAPHY & SEX CRIME DATA:

JAPAN

Data on the actual number of reported sex crimes in Japan are from the files of Roposensho.
The J.N.P.A. has been maintaining crime statistics for Japan since
1948. Basically yearly reports from all 47 Japanese prefectures
including Okinawa are collated. These official crime records are based
on independent police investigations. During the period under review
there has been no known change in the method of collecting and
recording of data.

Data regarding sex
crimes, consistently and regularly recorded in police records, are
clearly more available and definitive than those for quantitative or
qualitative measures of pornography. It is readily obvious from the
data that the incidence of rape and other sex crimes had steadily and
dramatically decreased over the period under review [Table 1].

The
incidence of rape has progressively declined from 4677 reported cases
with 5464 offenders in 1972 to the 1995 incidence of 1500 cases with
1,160 offenders; a dramatic reduction in incidence of some two-thirds [Table 1].
The character of the rape also changed markedly. Early in our period of
observation many of the rapes were gang rapes (more than a single
attacker) thus accounting for the number of offenders exceeding the
number of rapes reported. This has now become increasingly rare. In
1972, 12.3 % of the rapes by juveniles were conducted by two or more
offenders. Over the years, the percentage decreased so that in 1995
only 5.7% of the rapes were of this category.

The
number of rapes committed by juveniles has also markedly decreased.
Juveniles committed 33% of the rapes in 1972 but only 18% of the rapes
perpetrated in 1995. The number of juvenile offenders dramatically
dropped every period reviewed from 1,803 perpetrators in 1972 to a low
of 264 in 1995; a drop of some 85% [Table 1].

For
this same period the incidence of sex assault had also decreased from a
1972 incidence of 3,139 cases to fewer than 3,000 cases for the years
1975 to 1990. In 1995, however, the incidence of reported sexual
assaults rebounded to 3,644 cases. Since all figures in these Tables
represent actual cases rather than rates, it can be seen that even the
proportion of sex assault cases did not increase. During these
intervening years the population of Japan had increased more than 20
percent, from approximately 107 million in 1970 to more than 125
million persons in 1995 (Nihon No Tokai, 1996). Thus, the
actual rate decreased slightly from .0292 to .0290 per thousand
persons. It is also noteworthy that during this period, according to
J.N.P.A. records, the rate of convictions for rape increased markedly
from 85% in 1972 to more than 90% in the 1980s and more than 95% in the
1990s. This might be because, increasingly, in these latter years the
rapist was less likely to be known to the victim; proving lack of
consent became easier.

The data regarding
public indecency (e.g., flashing) was more in keeping with those for
rape than assault. The incidence of reported public indecencies
decreased about one third over the period. Considering the concomitant
increase in population this corresponds to a rate decrease of some 50% [Table 1].

Police
statistics use the victim age categories: 0-5, 6-12, 13-19, 20-24,
25-29, 30-39, 40-49, etc. The first three age categories reflect ages
associated with "preschool," "elementary and beginning middle school,"
and "later middle school and high school" years. It also reflects the
Japanese consideration of 20 being the age at which one reaches legal
majority.

The most dramatic decrease in sex
crimes was seen when attention was focused on the number and age of
rapists and victims among younger groups [Table 2].
We hypothesized that the increase in pornography, without age
restriction and in comics, if it had any detrimental effect, would most
negatively influence younger individuals. Just the opposite occurred.
The number of victims decreased particularly among the females younger
than 13. In 1972, 8.3% of the victims were younger than 13. In 1995 the
percentage of victims younger than 13 years of age dropped to 4.0%; a
reduction of greater than 50%.

In 1972,
33.3 % of the offenders were between 14-19 years of age; by 1995 that
percentage had decreased to 9.6%. Thus, over the period in question,
there was a major shift in the proportion of victims and offenders away
from the younger categories to older categories.

Lastly,
in Japan, while the total number of rapes decreased, the percentage of
rapes by a stranger increased steadily from 61.6 % of the rapes
reported in 1979 to 79.5% of the rapes in 1995. Thus, date rape and
familial rape decreased significantly.

As a
statistical control measure of sorts we analyzed the cases of murder
and non sexual violent physical assaults reported during the years 1972
to 1995 [Table 1].
Here also dramatic decreases occurred over the period reviewed. Murders
dropped by some 40 percent and non sexual physical assaults decreased
by about 60 percent. In these last two categories of crime, however,
there was no comparable shift in the age groups involved in these
activities either as victim or offender.

COMMENTS ON JAPANESE DATA: Comparisons

Within
Japan itself, the dramatic increase in available pornography and
sexually explicit materials is apparent to even a casual observer. This
is concomitant with a general liberalization of restrictions on other
sexual outlets as well. Also readily apparent from the information
presented is that, over this period of change, sex crimes in every
category, from rape to public indecency, sexual
offenses from both ends of the criminal spectrum, significantly
decreased in incidence. Most significantly, despite the wide increase
in availability of pornography to children, not only was there a
decrease in sex crimes with juveniles as victims but the number of
juvenile offenders also decreased significantly.

These
findings are similar to, but are even more striking than, those
reported with the rise of sexually explicit materials in Denmark,
Sweden and West Germany. The findings from Europe were, in turn, more
dramatic than those reported for the United States. Kutchinsky (1991)
studied the situation in Denmark, Sweden, West Germany and the U.S.A.
following the legalization or liberalization of the appropriate
pornography laws in those countries. The first three countries
mentioned, decriminalized the production and distribution of sexually
explicit materials in 1969, 1970, and 1973 respectively. In the U.S.A.
there was no widespread decriminalization or legalization but, as in
Japan, interpretations of the laws seemed to change and prosecution
against SEM decreased markedly. Concomitantly, the availability of
pornography increased commensurably. Kutchinsky studied the course of
sex crimes for the 20 year period 1964 to 1984. Thus his period of
study overlaps with the first half of ours.

Kutchinsky
(1991) found that in Denmark and Sweden adult rapes, for the years
studied, increased only modestly and in West Germany not at all.
Indeed, by 1989 (the last date for which data were availabe to
Kutchinsky and the year in which East and West Germany were reunited)
in West Germany the rape rate continued to decline since 1983 to a
historic low ever reported; 8.0 cases per 100,000 (Kutchinsky, 1994,
pp. 6); a 27 percent decrease in the last six years. In all three
countries, nonviolent sex crimes decreased. The slight increase in
Denmark and Sweden, was thought by some most probably due to increased
reporting as a result of greater and increasing awareness among women
and police of the rape problem (Kutchinsky, 1985a), pp. 323). In Japan
too, over the two decades reviewed in the present study, there was also
most probably an increasing likelihood of reporting which makes the
decrease in sex crimes seen in Japan even more impressive.

Similar
to our findings in Japan, in Denmark and West Germany the most dramatic
categories of sex crime to show a significant decrease were rapes and
other sex crimes against and by juveniles. Consider: 1) Between 1972
and 1980 the total number of sex crimes known to the police in the
Federal Republic of Germany decreased by 11 percent; during the same
period the total number of all crimes reported increased
by 50 percent; 2) Sex offenses against minors (those under 14 years of
age) had a similarly slight decrease of about 10 percent during this
period. For those victims under six years of age, however, the numbers
decreased dramatically more than 50 percent (Kutchinsky, 1985a).

Other
researchers have found similarly. In Denmark homosexual child
molestation decreased more than 50 percent from 1966 to 1969
(Ben-Veniste, 1971). These decreases in sex crimes involving children
are particularly noteworthy since in Japan, as in Denmark, for the time
under review, there were no laws, and still are no laws, against the
personal non-commercial possession or use of pictures of children
involved in sexual activities; so-called "child-porn" (Kutchinsky,
1985b); pp. 5; Anonymous, 1998a). Considering the seriousness in how
sex crimes against children are viewed in both cultures, this drop in
cases reported represents a real reduction in the number of offenses
committed rather than a reduced readiness to report such offenses.

The
decrease in gang rapes in Japan had been similarly reported to occur
elsewhere. In West Germany, from 1971 to 1987 group rape rates
decreased 59 percent. In contrast with findings in Germany where rape
by strangers decreased 33 percent (Kutchinsky, 1991) pp. 57), in Japan
the number of rapes committed by individuals known to the victim,
decreased and rape by strangers increased. Since rapes by strangers or
groups are more likely to be reported than date or marital rapes, again
there is little doubt these findings in Japan represent real
differences. It is also noted that the Japanese police focused more
heavily on the control of rape by strangers than on date rape or rape
by a known assailant.

Some might, e.g.,
Court (1977) attribute the overall decrease in the number of sex crimes
recorded in Japan as reflecting a public attitude change concomitant
with the increasing availability of pornography. This is doubtful.
While it might be true for relatively minor offenses as those of public
indecency, rape has always been taken seriously. Indeed, one can argue
that the inhibitions to reporting have decreased. The case can be made
that the increased prevalence of SEM makes it easier for children or
women or likely victims to be less inhibited in talking with their
parents, partners or authorities about sexual matters; particularly
about any sex offense.

Another factor to
encourage reporting is that special police rape investigation units
sensitive to women's issues were established in September, 1983 and
women no longer are treated as if they are the offenders. This was
often so in the 1970s. Also significant is that Japan, in the 1990s,
established a women-run rape crises center in Tokyo and women's centers
in major cities throughout the country. In 1996 the police also started
public awareness campaigns which encouraged the victims of sex crimes
to report. Sex educators too deserve credit. Sex education, K-12, is
standard in Japanese schools and has been so since the 1970s. Sex
educators have increasingly become schooled in rape theory, prevention,
and reporting, and added such materials to their classroom
presentations.9

It
is accepted that the application of the appropriate laws or the social
forces at play might not have been consistent over time. Any short term
glitch in how the data were volunteered, solicited or recorded,
however, should not effect the overall trends. Regardless, it is safe
to say that over this prolonged period, interpretations of the
definitions of obscenity have been getting less rigid with more
material passing as acceptable and entering public awareness while the
prosecution of laws relating to rape and sexual assault have been
getting tougher. Currently less sexual "license" for sex crimes is
accepted by the general Japanese population or by victims than was true
25 years ago. And surely one can not attribute the decrease in murder
and nonsexual violent assault to a reluctance to report concomitant
with an increase in SEM.10

It
has been said that "pornography historically has been an integral part
of Japanese culture" (Abramson & Hayashi, 1984). It is more true to
say that erotic and fertility themes have been a traditional part of
Japanese culture. Indeed religious shrines, ribald stories and both
suggestive and explicit art have incorporated sexual icons and
representations without shame and without the sin aspect associated
with sex in the West. Traditionally these views of sex were in keeping
with cultural or Confucian themes seen as enhancing family solidarity
through child bearing and as a form of sex education (Abramson &
Hayashi, 1984) and a way to enjoy the "good life."

This
attitude essentially remained with the people even with the
modernization of Japan ushered in with the 1868 Meiji Restoration.
However, the government of the Meiji era, to enhance respect from the
West, began to modify Japan's attitudes toward sex by adopting some of
the West's comparatively restrictive and conservative mores. For
example, the then common practices of nudity and mixed bathing, were
newly forbidden in public bath houses (Dore, 1958). This ordinance was
actually randomly enforced and basically only in the major cities. But
this was a small part of the Meiji government's plan which came to be
called wakon-yoosai (Japanese spirit and Western technology);
a plan to develop and strengthen the nation by melding Western
knowledge and technology with the Japanese spirit and culture (Hijirida
& Yoshikawa, 1987).

During World War II
many sexual restrictions were relaxed in Japan as they were in the
West. Following the war, the United States' forces occupying Japan
imposed Western ideas of morality and law. The Japanese slowly came to
adopt some of these ideas and practices. The wakon-yoosai
attitude reemerged (Hijirida & Yoshikawa, 1987). Negative ideas of
pornography, foreign to Japanese culture, were accepted and
particularly applied to visual images since they were the ones most
likely recognized and thereby criticized by Westerners. Little
attention was given to written SEM since foreigners would be unlikely
to read Japanese and thus would not notice and criticize these
(Abramson & Hayashi, 1984). Other visible sex related matters were
bent to Western ways. Prostitution, for instance, previously legal and
accepted, was declared illegal in 1958.11
In the late 1950s and early 1960s separate-gender toilets and public
baths began to replace the ubiquitous uni-sex facilities.
Interestingly, while visual depictions of erotic themes were
increasingly restricted, written pornography was slowly becoming more
prevalent, more risqué and more fetishistic in tone. This was seen by
some as a liberating reaction to the restraints of both Confucian
feudalism and Western morality (Kuro, 1954). These were the laws and
situation that basically existed in Japan during the early years of our
study.

In the ensuing years, sexually
explicit materials, first gradually and then in the late 1980s and into
the 1990s rapidly increased in prevalence. The years 1990 and 1991
seemed a watershed. Major shifts developed in how much pornography was
produced and how the obscenity laws were interpreted. Fewer materials
were being charged as obscene and even fewer convictions recorded. Once
more this was similar to findings elsewhere.

In
Denmark the repeal of the ban on pornographic literature in 1967 was a
consequence of provocative publishers producing and distributing to a
waiting market and increasingly permissive court rulings (Kutchinsky,
1973b). In Japan the production and relaxation of control seemed to
occur simultaneously; not one obviously causing the other.

The
types of pornography available in Japan is also of interest relative to
sex crime. The SEM produced caters to every taste and fetish and is
typically much more aggressive and violent than that seen in the United
States. And there are rarely enforced age restrictions in the purchase
of or posing for these materials. This too was essentially similar to
the situation in Denmark (Kutchinsky, 1978). Kutchinsky further found
that while the available SEM increasingly became fetish oriented and
aggressive, such materials were not necessarily more often used. It
appeared to remain a small portion of the pornography available. In
Denmark, Kutchinsky (1978) estimated hard core sadomasochistic
materials and the like comprised no more than approximately 2% of all
obtainable. Winick (1985) found about the same among U.S. materials.
Giglio (1985) argued that Kutchinsky's data may not be applicable
elsewhere considering a climate where violent pornography may be more
prevalent. While we did not analyze in detail the pornographic
materials in Japan for sadomasochistic or violent content it appears
from inspection that such content is certainly much higher in Japan
than in Denmark, the U.S.A. or elsewhere (Abramson & Hayashi, 1984;
Yamada, 1991).

Kutchinsky (1973a), in his
studies, found that the least serious sex crimes decreased the most and
rape the least. On the other hand, the opposite was found in Japan. In
Japan, rapes decreased 79 percent while public indecency decreased 33
percent. The reason for the difference is not clear. The compulsivities
generally associated with the crimes considered under the public
indecency law are probably less easily modified than is rape. Also, the
incidence of peeping and flashing might already have been at a low
incidence close to a base line. Public shame and interpersonal
relativism is an extremely strong social force in Japan (Lebra, 1976)
and can be a major factor in controlling public indecency.

Findings
regarding sex crimes, murder and assault are in keeping with what is
also known about general crime rates in Japan regarding burglary, theft
and such. Japan has the lowest number of reported rape cases and the
highest percentage of arrests and convictions in reported cases of any
developed nation. Indeed Japan is known as one of the safest developed
democratic countries for women in the world. This not withstanding,
Japanese social critics and feminists think things can be better still
(Radin, 1996). Many women's advocates think the police authorities can
be more responsive to women's concerns and women themselves less
reluctant to complain. This comment can probably be applied everywhere.
But, in essence, Japan can be rightly proud of these findings of
diminished sex crimes in all categories and its non-censorship of
sexually explicit materials.

SHANGHAI, CHINA

Parenthetically,
some data from Shanghai, China are of comparative interest. The era of
Classical China, particularly of the Ming (1368-1644) and Ching
(1644-1911) dynasties still have a rich history of erotic art (Humana
& Wu, 1984) and literature (Ruan, 199l). Nevertheless, government
censorship against erotic (and politically sensitive) materials
developed particularly in the 13th to 15th Century but decreased from
the 16th to the 20th. For the modern period, the censorship policy of
the Republic of China (1911-1949) was inconsistent; at times
restrictive, at times permissive. During the Republic period prior to
World War II authorities were often even critical of anatomy or
physiology texts considered too explicit. Distribution of such texts
was often restricted (Dikötter, 1995).

Contemporary
China, however, is considered much more conservative in regard to
sexual matters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in
1949 the government imposed a complete nationwide ban on erotic fiction
and SEM of any kind (China1, 1949; Ruan, 1991). During the Cultural
Revolution (~1965-1968 ) the Red Guards were particularly destructive
not only of Western images and pornography but even classical Chinese
art was subject to their ravages. The destruction and confiscation was
so effective that from the 1950s to the mid 1970s "almost no erotic
material was to be found (Ruan, 1991)." What remains to the present
from preCultural Revolution days had been buried or hidden. Presently
even consensual nonmarital sex among adults is considered a serious
crime (CKCKCK). Nevertheless, and not surprisingly, sexual artifacts
and writings continue to be of interest. In 1997 a museum of classical
Chinese erotic art open to the public has been permitted in Shanghai
under the directorship of Professor Dalin Liu [CKCKCK] (Liu is
considered the Alfred Kinsey of the P.R.C.) And, with a curious
relaxastion in attitude, a library in Guangzhou was allowed to host an
exhibitions of nude photographs to thousands of viewers (Liu &
Watson, 1999).

Despite the ban, a rapid
increase in available pornography was ushered in with the influx of
increased tourism and lowering of trade restrictions following Nixon's
visit to Beijing in 1972 and the United States' official recognition of
the P.R.C. in 1979. These products were introduced mainly through Hong
Kong. The government strongly reacted to this influx. A new
anti-pornography law was instituted in 1985 with much harsher
punishments than indicated in the 1949 law (China2, 1985). Then, in
1987, the government began to enact most draconian policies. To be sure
these repressive tactics were also used as political measures since the
definition of pornography used was vague (Ruan, 1991).
Nevertheless, the suppression of SEM was extensive and could have been
more political than sexual. From 1985 to 1987, 217 publishers were
arrested and 42 publishing houses were forced to close (Ruan, 1991).

One
example of the extreme government prudishness is illustrative of the
extremes to which the government moved. A high ranking government
official, author and former deputy minister of the Cultural Ministry of
the State council, Zhou Erfu, was removed from his vice-president's
post of the Association for Foreign Friendship and expelled from the
Chinese Communist Party for having visited an "adult sex" shop and
patronizing a prostitute while on a visit to Japan (People's Daily,
1986).

The move against pornography reached
a low point in 1988 when the Standing Committee of the 6th National
People's Congress declared that major porn dealers shall be sentenced
to life imprisonment and Deng Xiaoping, China's Head, declared that
some publishers of erotica even deserved the death penalty (Centre
Daily News, cited in Ruan, (1991) pg. 103).

For
the period 1965 to 1990, data on the cases of rape in Shanghai were
collected; so too were the number of pornographic items confiscated by
the government. These data are usually handled confidentially as
government secrets in China but were made available for research
purposes. During the five year interval 1986-1990 there was a 25 fold
increase in the number of pornographic items seized by the Shanghai
police. Nevertheless, as seen elsewhere in the world, there was no
change in the incidence of rape which has remained relatively constant
over the 25 year period reviewed. This is particularly noteworthy
considering the in-migration to the city population rise over the same
period (Table 3). {Write to Dalin Liu.}

UNITED STATES

Data
from the United States are equally persuasive. By whatever methods of
documentation, it can be stated that the amount of pornography
available now in the United States is considerably greater than thirty
or even twenty years ago. One can consider alone the increase in home
video rental and sales; more than one in ten women and two in ten men
bought or rented an "adult" rated film or tape in the year 1993
(Laumann, 1994) and estimates are that 600 million porn videos were
rented or bought in the U.S. in 1997 --more than two for every person
in the United States (Phillips, 1998). Hotel guests in 1996 spent some
$175 million to receive sex films in their rooms and those at home
spent some $150 million to receive pay-per-view in their homes
(Schlosser, 1997). And considering the volume and number of
internet/web porn sites, over the last decade --with a market value of
some $750 million to $1 billion in 1998 alone (Leland, 1998; pp. 65)--
a dramatic increase in the availability of pornography, even of the XXX
type, cannot be denied. Such sexually explicit materials is available
to satisfy almost every paraphilia including a minority of illegal
child pornography (e.g., Thornton, 1986, U.S. Customs, 1994).

Since
the times of the Presidential and Attorney's General commissions the
standards for obscenity have been changing. Presently the basic
decision of whether something is obscene depends upon proving three
prongs (the so-called Miller v. California, 1973, test): (1) the
average person, applying contemporary community standards would
conclude that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest
--a demanding drive to sexual fulfillment; (2) it depicts sexually
explicit conduct, specifically defined by law, in a patently offensive
manner; and (3) it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or
scientific value. These are increasingly difficult tests to meet
especially since no major community in the U.S. has decided that
anything other than child-porn was outside its standard (Diamond &
Dannemiller, 1989).1213

Despite
this availability of SEM, according to F.B.I. Department of Justice
statistics we can see that the incidence of rape declined markedly over
these last twenty years from 1975 to 1995. This was particularly seen
in the age categories 20-24 and 25-34 [Table 4].
In the other categories, the rate of rape essentially did not change.
During the years 1980 to 1989 the contrast is great between the rates
of rape, declining or remaining steady, while the rates of non-sexual
violent crimes continued to increase (Flanagan & Maguire, 1990 pp.
365). The decreases in criminal victimization to sex crimes are
particularly dramatic when attention is focused on the latter years,
1993-1996 [Table 5]
for which data are available. This is especially so for the last years
for which full data are at hand. In those years there has been a
decrease by some 60 percent in the incidence of rape, but all
categories of crime associated with rape also declined. Indeed, in the
latest F.B.I. announcement, they report that murder in 1997 dropped 8.1
percent to its lowest rate in 30 years and that rape declined in number
and rate in every region of the country (Anonymous, 1998b). Attorney
General Janet Reno reported that in 1997 rape, in number and rate, has
declined in every region of the country (Anonymous, 1998b).

A
further consideration is that, while teen drug use continued to rise, a
study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported "a
steady decline" in the proportion of high school students who have ever
had sex, a trend that began in 1991. "Boys accounted for nearly all of
the decline (Leland, 1998; pp. 64)." Part of this may be accounted for
by increased sex education classes in the U.S. and a concomitant or
independent increased awareness of AIDS.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

With
these data from a wide variety of countries and cultures, we can better
evaluate the thesis that an abundance of sexual explicit material
invariably leads to an increase of illegal sexual activity and
eventually rape (e.g., Liebert, Neale, & Davison, 1973; MacKinnon,
1989; Morgan, 1980). Similarly we can now better reconsider the
conclusion of the Meese Commission that there exists "a causal
relationship to antisocial acts of sexual violence and . . . unlawful
acts of sexual violence (Meese, 1986; pp. 326)." Indeed, the data we
report and review suggests that the thesis is myth and, if anything,
there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes.

Christensen
(1990) argues that to prove that available pornography leads to sex
crimes one must at least find a positive temporal correlation between
the two. It appears from these new data from Japan, the United States,
and Shanghai, as it was evident to Kutchinsky (1994) from research in
Europe and Scandinavia, that a large increase in available
sexually explicit materials, over many years, either has no effect on
the incidence of sex crimes or is correlated with their decrease.

Objectivity now requires that an additional question be asked: "Does pornography use and availability prevent or reduce
sex crime?" This hypotheses seems to have been tested and
substantiated, over prolonged periods, in Denmark, Sweden, West Germany
and now in Japan and the USA and somewhat in Shanghai, China.

The first question/concept we discussed, that of sex crime cause, is quite different from that of sex crime prevention.
And the two concepts are not even mutually dependent although they seem
to be so intuitively. Accepting or rejecting one thesis is independent
from accepting or rejecting the other. Kutchinsky (1994), considering
the political implications of these questions, has written:

Criminalizing or legalizing pornography should depend on whether it can be shown to be seriously harmful or not; not whether it is found to be harmful or beneficial. If pornography cannot be shown to be seriously harmful, it should be legalized (emphasis in original).

In
a similar vane additional evidence is available which should be
considered. The countries of Singapore and Union of South Africa as
well as the Australian State of Queensland, during the same period
investigated by Kutchinsky (1964-1974), were firmly against any
pornography. Their anti-obscenity laws were quite broad. In Singapore
rape rates increased by 69 percent, in South Africa the rape rate increased by 28 percent and in Queensland the increase was 23 percent (Court, 1984).14

There
are reasons to believe increases in available SEM can lead to legal
sexual expressions but no measure was taken of such activities. Couples
might have increased their love making frequency, artists might have
created newly inspired works of art,15
multitudes might have used the pornography as vehicles for sex
education and not a few have probably used the material for reading or
viewing pleasure and masturbation. All of these are positive, legal and
constructive, or at least nondestructive, social outlets. In Japan, as
elsewhere, publishers and others maintain that erotic stories, even in
comics, serve as a means of relaxation for adults who feel suffocated
in Japan's' "controlled society" (Burrill, 1991). This probably holds
similarly for all societies.

Many individuals,
in polls and surveys around the USA and Japan have indicated that porn
has been useful in their own love-making and relaxation and not a few,
even among senior citizens, have indicated it has also often been
instructive and pleasurable (Brecher & Editors, 1984). Further, in
general, no American state-wide community ever polled has voted to ban
pornography; even Maine (1986) and Utah (Fahy, 1984; Seldin, 1984),
typically considered conservative American states, have refused to do
so (Diamond & Dannemiller, 1989).16

While
no population study has demonstrated a link between pornography and sex
crimes, there are, however, occasional research reports of a linkage.
One, for example, stated:

Retrospective
recall provided the basis for estimating the use of sexually explicit
materials by sex offenders (voluntary outpatients) and non offenders
during pubescence, as well as currently . . . Rapists and child
molesters reported frequent use of these materials . . . Current use
was significantly related to the chronicity of their sexual offending .
. . (Marshall, 1988).

The
actual evidence in this report, however, seems at closer scrutiny, to
indicate that pornography used by adult sex offenders is viewed
immediately prior to their offense. Unstated, but contained within the
Marshall study, is evidence that was usually absent from the offenders'
experiences during formative years.

This lack
of early exposure to pornography seems to be a crucial consideration.
Most frequently, as it was found in the 1960s before the influx of
sexually explicit materials in the United States, those who committed
sex crimes typically had less exposure to SEM in their
background than others and the offenders generally were individuals
usually deeply religious and socially and politically conservative
(Gebhard, Gagnon, Pomeroy, & Christenson, 1965). Since then, most
researchers have found similarly (e.g., Ward & Kruttschnitt, 1983).
The upbringing of sex offenders was usually sexually repressive, often
they had an overtly religious background and held rigid conservative
attitudes toward sexuality (Conyers & Harvey, 1996; Dougher, 1988);
their upbringing had usually been ritualistically moralistic and
conservative rather than permissive. During adolescence and adulthood,
sex offenders were generally found not to have used erotic or pornographic materials any more than any other groups of individuals or even less so
(Goldstein & Kant, 1973; Propper, 1972). Among sex offenders,
violent rapists had seen no more pornography than had sex peepers or
flashers (Abel, Becker, Murphy & Flanagan, 1980). Walker (1970)
reported that sex criminals were several years older than non-criminals
before they first saw pictures of intercourse. Thirty-nine percent of
convicts surveyed by Walker agreed that pornography "provides a safety
valve for antisocial impulses." It thus seems that early exposure to
sex, rather than late exposure, is socially more beneficial.

Increased
exposure to pornography is also, I believe, a major reason we are
seeing a downturn particularly in sex crimes with juveniles either as
perpetrators or victims. Youngsters, particularly in the past, but
still somewhat at present, have fewer outlets for their sexual
curiosity or desires than do adults. Available pornography and other
SEM allows an outlet for developing sexuality and natural curiosity
that was heretofore unavailable; the sexual drives and needs of minors
can now be somewhat satisfied by fantasy and education (even if flawed)
offered by pornography.

Many who deal with
rapists feel rape is a sexual act for a non sexual problem, e.g., a
defeat or frustration at work might motivate rape (Groth, 1979). Some
see rape as an expression of power (Groth, Burgess, & Holstrom,
1977). Goldstein and Kant concluded that "few if any" of the sex
offenders they interviewed had been appreciably influenced by
pornography. They concluded: "Far more potent sexual stimuli" are real
persons in the environment for the sex criminal (Goldstein & Kant,
1973). Danish experts, including feminist criminologists who have
studied rape in Denmark, also agree that there is no relationship
between pornography and rape (Kutchinsky, 1985b).

Nicholas Groth, a specialist in the treatment of sex offenders, has written:

Rape
is sometimes attributed to the increasing availability of pornography
and sexual explicitness in the public media. Although a rapist, like
anyone else, might find some pornography stimulating, it is not sexual
arousal but the arousal of anger or fear that leads to rape.
Pornography does not cause rape; banning it will not stop rape (Groth,
1979, pp. 9).

Wilson
(1978) found that "Males who develop deviant patterns of sexual
behavior in adulthood have suffered relative deprivation of experience
with pornography in adolescence." He suggests that pornography not only
can, but does, help to prevent criminal sex problems (pp. 176). Wilson
claims exposure to sexually explicit materials can have therapeutic
advantages and, among couples, help by promoting greater communication
and openness to discuss sexual matters, and provide sex education. It
can also help by providing an anxiety and inhibition-relieving function.

Several
other explanations have been offered to account for the decreasing
incidence of sex crimes in Japan and elsewhere. Abramson and Hayashi
(1984) attribute the low incidence of rape in Japan to internal
restraint which is part of the Japanese national character instilled by
the tight society. While that might be so, it is difficult to imagine
that restraint stronger in the 1990s Japan or anywhere in the world,
than it might have been in the more conservative environment of the
1970s.

Kutchinsky (1973b) credits the
reduction in sex crimes associated with the high availability of SEM in
Europe and Scandinavia to "most of the population became familiar with
pornographic literature: but very quickly the point of saturation was
reached, mainly because the interest was based on curiosity rather than
a genuine need." Some credit the overall decrease in crime in the USA
to a decrease in drug use and availability (US News & World Report,
1998).17

Other
factors associated with the decrease in rape and sex crimes are
probably involved. For instance, over the period under review, 1972 to
1995, concomitant with the decrease in male sex crimes there has been
an increase in female consensual sexual availability. In addition to
females available as sexual partners via prostitution and other
commercial sex outlets, the "girls next door" are now more ready to
accept and even solicit nonmarital consensual sexual activities than
was common two and three decades ago (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, &
Gebhard, 1953; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Stuart, 1994; Liu, Ng,
& Chou, 1992; Tavris & Sadd, 1977; Uchiyama, 1996).

Many
laboratory experiments are alleged to prove a negative societal
influence from exposure to pornography. Results from different
experiments supposedly demonstrated that exposure to pornography,
particularly that which includes violence, leads to the degradation of
women, the trivilization of rape and increased likelihood of aggression
or acceptance of violence against women (for overview of this area see,
e.g., Malamuth & Donnerstein, 1984; Zillmann & Bryant, 1989;
Zillmann & Weaver, 1989).

The
laboratory-school experiments or brief exposure experiments (less than
a week to a semester or so) are hardly comparable to situations in the
real world and may not be relevant at all. The typical laboratory
experiment exposed college students to different types of pornography
for various durations and attempted to measure their subsequent
attitudes and behaviors. Further, and considered crucial, the situation
was often manipulated so that the students were placed into situations
that confounded the experimental design interpretations (e.g.,
Donnerstein, 1984; Donnerstein & Barrett, 1978; Zillmann, 1984;
Zillmann & Bryant, 1984; 1989; Zillmann & Weaver, 1989). Often
the findings themselves are inconsistent. For instance Zillmann and
Bryant (Zillmann, 1984; Zillmann & Bryant, 1984; 1988a; 1988b)
reported that their results indicated, on the one hand, that large
amounts of exposure to pornography reduced the willingness of student
subjects to aggress against another after erotic stimulation [inferred
positive effect] but led to "a general trivialization of rape,"
decreased satisfaction with the present partner and supposed lessening
of "family values" [inferred negative effect]. These laboratory studies
have been seriously critiqued e.g., by Becker & Stein, (1991),
Brannigan, (1987b; 1991), Brannigan & Goldenberg, (1986; 1987a,b),
Christensen, (1990), Reiss (1986) and Rosen & Beck (1988), for
being methodologically flawed and inappropriate for practical
consideration. And even experimenters in this area of class-room research have significantly criticized how the data have been extrapolated for the court-room (e.g., Linz, Penrod, & Donnerstein, 1987).

Lab
experiments typically do not take into account context and other
crucial social and situational factors in considering the audience or
the material. The real-world results we find for Japan, Shanghai and
the USA, and those Kutchinsky reports for West Germany, Denmark, and
Sweden, and Court has found for Singapore and elsewhere, are from huge
diverse populations that have had years of exposure to sexually
explicit materials. These materials could be chosen or not, used or not
and modified or not to taste. No person was obligated to expose him or
herself to experiences found distasteful while, on the other hand,
anyone could exploit any available material or opportunity available.
Individuals in real life could use the material alone in private or
with partners. In real life, individuals can elect to experience some
pornography for minutes or hours, at a single session, or over years.
In real life, individuals are free to satisfy different sexual urges in
ways unavailable to students in classroom or subjects in laboratory
situations.

Kutchinsky (1983, 1987,
1992,1994), has discussed the relative merits of lab studies compared
to events outside the laboratory. Basically Kutchinsky believes that
pornography, in the real world, offers a substitution for the sexual
and nonsexual frustrations that might, in other circumstances, lead to
sexual offenses (Kutchinsky, 1973a). He wrote:

If
availability of pornography can reduce sex crimes, it is because the
use of certain forms of pornography to certain potential offenders is
functionally equivalent to the commission of certain types of sex
offences: both satisfy the need for psychosexual stimulants leading to
sexual enjoyment and orgasm through masturbation. If these potential
offenders have the option, they prefer to use pornography because it is
more convenient, unharmful and undangerous. (Kutchinsky, 1994, pp. 21).

This
too we believe is only a partial answer. There is also the liklihood
that repeated exposure to SEM can lead to a response of habituation,
boredom or fatigue.

What other societal
factors, aside from an increase in pornography, might have led to the
decrease in crimes in Japan or the USA? If pornography doesn't lead to
rape and sex crimes, what does? Obviously these are complicated
multifaceted questions. In response, we agree with many (e.g.,
(Brannigan, 1987b; 1987c; Fisher & Barak, 1991; Gottfredson &
Hirschi, 1995) that crimes in general are not simply a matter of
"monkey see - monkey do." It is not as Byrne (1977, pp. 346) suggests
evident that "In this way, the erotic images prevalent in a culture
become transferred to private erotic images which are later translated
to overt behavior." Most sex crimes are usually opportunistic, given
little forethought and typically committed by individuals with poor
self or social control. And such individuals are often identifiable
before they would be exposed to any substantial SEM. More than half of
adult sex offenders were often known to be adolescent sex offenders
(Abel et al., 1985; Knopp, 1984). As Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990)
state:

.
. . the origins of criminality of low self control are to be found in
the first six or eight years of life, during which time the child
remains under the control and supervision of the family or a familial
institution . . . policies directed towards enhancement of the
ability of familial institutions to socialize children are the only
realistic long-term state policies with potential for substantial crime
reduction (pp. 272-273). [emphasis mine]

I
believe this conclusion has great merit. Consider that in Japan the
competitive nature of the educational and employment situation over the
last two decades has pressured more time being devoted to school
achievement starting in preschool and continuing through college; hours
of home-work and extra tutoring after school (juckyu) are
common (Effron, 1997). And Japanese mothers usually remain at home to
supervise their children through the middle school if not the high
school years. We believe this in itself reduces the opportunity for
anti-social or criminal activity and helps socialize the child to avoid
unlawful behaviors as an adult (Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999). How
these ideas might apply in the U.S. is not clear. More populated
neighborhoods or increased media coverage of sex crimes might lead to
greater social oversight and personal insights.

Ellis
(1989) attributes sex crimes to innate motives toward sexual expression
and a drive to possess and control. The increased early age times under
family jurisdiction can help modify these drives. So too can standard
K-12 sex education programs take some credit. Sex education programs
are routine school offerings in Japan, Denmark, Sweden and Germany (but
not in China). Thus, socially positive proactive forces, in themselves,
may account for much of the reduction in the crimes seen. Other forces
responsible for the reduction of sex crimes rates have yet to be
determined.17, 18

A
companion question also arises: "Might there be negative effects of the
increase in pornography availability other than measured by our
inspection of documented sex crimes?" Feminists, religious
conservatives and other moralists consider pornography a problem even
if it can not be proven that it leads to an increase in sex crimes (see
e.g., Cline, 1974; Court, 1984; Dworkin, 1987, 1988; MacKinnon, 1984,
1993; Osanka & Johann, 1989).

Some see it as violence against women per se.
Andrea Dworkin, for instance claims: "The question is not: does
pornography cause violence against women? Pornography is violence
against women, violence which pervades and distorts every aspect of our
culture (Dworkin, 1981)." And Gloria Steinam (Steinam, 1983) has
written: "pornography is about power and sex-as-weapon - in the same
way we have come to understand that rape is about violence, and not
really about sexuality at all (pp. 38)." Catherine MacKinnon (1993)
considers even written pornography degrading and harmful to women by
its mere existence.19

It
must be simultaneously recognized that many feminists consider
pornography to be liberating for women. They see SEM as expanding their
social and sexual options; offering them choices of fantasies,
behaviors and artistic expression. On the other hand, they see the
stereotypic views of femininity and female roles in the popular.
so-called "women's " magazines, to be stultifying and restrictive;
keeping women in "their place." Such feminists include Wendy McElroy
(1995) with her book "XXX: A Women's Right to Pornography" as well as
Marjorie Heins (1993), Nadine Strossen (1995) --head of the American
Civil Liberties Union-- and Leonore Tiefer (1995). As with so many
other aspects of pornography, much is in the eye of the beholder and
neither all feminists nor all religious conservatives can be painted
with the same brush.20

Some
contend that homosexual orientation is a product of viewing homosexual
porn. Research does not support this claim. Green (1992) writes: "I
studied two groups of young boys over fifteen years as they matured
into adolescence and young adulthood. . . .what distinguished these two
groups developmentally was their early childhood behavior at ages three
through six. One group showed extensive cross-gendered behavior. They
liked to cross-dress in women's clothes [and otherwise act as
females]."(p.129). The other group showed typical masculine behaviors.
In families of both groups heterosexual SEM were available. The
behaviors seemed to evolve spontaneously and any interest in
heterosexual or homosexual "erotic materials followed the emergence of
sexual orientation."(p. 129).

There are
certainly anecdotal reports of negative consequences, aside from
atypical behavior or sex crimes, attributed to pornography. These range
from domestic violence e.g., Sommers & Check, (1987), to child
abuse e.g., Burgess & Hartman, (1987). There is, however, no
evidence that pornography is in anyway causal or even related to such
terrible and regrettable crimes (Howitt & Cumberbatch, 1990). These
anti-social and criminal acts are, as mentioned above, more likely due
to the poorly parented and inadequately schooled individuals with long
lasting poor self or social control.

Another
potential ill effect of pornography is reviewed by Howitt and
Cumberbatch (1990); the possible negative effects of pornography on
men. These authors review reports (e.g., Moye, 1985; Fracher &
Kimmel, 1987; Tiefer, 1986) of men reduced to impotence by "performance
anxiety" and not being able to match the ever-potent, hugely endowed,
skilled studs in pornography. Howitt and Cumberbatch, despite an
apparent selective anti-pornography bias in the data they consider,
conclude that the factors actually responsible for impotence and
performance anxiety eventually probably have nothing to do with
pornography and have also yet to be determined. It is most probably
that porn turns some people "on" while it turns other people "off."
Actually, pornography is often the poor man's (and woman's) Viagra(r).
There is little doubt that it provides many with positive returns and
pleasurable and legal outlets for sexual urges.

A
last thought: I believe it part of natures' evolutionary heritage that
sexually erotic scenes be part of any individual's development. Since
until recent times, privacy has been a luxery only afforded to the very
few and then to the very rich. Only in modern times are children
expected to develop without witnessing their parents or others, and
certainly animals, in sexual activities. As such a basic feature of
evolution, reproduction would not be left completely to chance.
Attraction of so many to pornography and other sexual themes is most
likely our biological and social heritage from this fundemental aspect
of life. It is only culture and politics which makes it seem unusual.

CONCLUSIONS

The
concern that countries allowing pornography and liberal anti-obscenity
laws would show increased sex crime rates due to modeling or that
children or adolescents in particular would be negatively vulnerable to
and receptive to such models or that society would be otherwise
adversely effected is not supported by evidence. It is certainly clear
from the data reviewed, and the new data and analysis presented, that a
massive increase in available pornography in Japan, the United States
and elsewhere has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in
sexual crimes and most so among youngsters as perpetrators or victims.
Even in this area of concern no "clear and present danger" exists for
the suppression of SEM. There is no evidence that pornography is
intended or likely to produce "imminent lawless action" (see
Brandenberg v. Ohio, 1969). It is reasonable that the U.S. Supreme
Court has consistently rejected the principal that speech or expression
can be punished because it offends some people's sensibilities or
beliefs. Compared with "hate speech" or "commercial speech" there seems
even less justification for banning "sex speech."2122

Sex
abuse of any kind is deplorable and should be eliminated. Rape and sex
crimes, like any criminal activities are blights on society which
should be expunged. The question remains "How best to do this?" Most
assuredly, focusing energy in the wrong direction, or taking actions
just to placate victims, politicians or irate citizens will not solve
the problem nor help. Nor will spreading myths or misinformation.
Removing pornography from our midst will, according to the evidence,
only hurt rather than help society.

I think it
is better to expend our energies in two directions. 1) Make better
pornography so that preferred role models are portrayed and more
segments of society can come to appreciate or at least understand and
tolerate its value23;
and 2) turn our research to other directions to eliminate or reduce the
social ills of rape and other sex crimes. The best place to look is
probably in the home during the first decade of life. But it is only by
research that we can continue to understand how to most effectively
meet this social challenge. Governments as well as the pornography
industry itself would do well to finance and encourage such research.

---===((( END )))===---

TABLES

Table 1. Sex Crime Statistics for Japan

Crime\Year

1972

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

Rape victims (total)

4,677

3,692

2,610

1,802

1,548

1,500

Rape offenders (total)

5,464

4,052

2,667

1,809

1,289

1,160

Rape offenders (juvenile)

1,803

1,319

958

658

346

264

Sex Assaults (events)

3,139

2,841

2,825

2,645

2,730

3,644

Sex Assault offenders (total)

1,915

1,570

1,420

1,334

1,143

1,464

Sex Assault offenders (juvenile)

641

439

440

497

341

321

Public Indecency

1,651

1,706

1,335

1,182

947

1,108

Obscenity Convictions

3,298

1,824

894

2,093

736

702

Violent Crimes (events)

89,235

73,198

52,307

48,495

37,899

35,860

Murder (events)

2,060

2,098

1,684

1,780

1,238

1,281

Public Indecency = flashing, frottage, etc.Violent crimes = includes those in which assault or injury occurs.

Douglas, J. J. (1998). Special Supplement: Testimony of J.J. Douglas, Executive Director, Free Speech Coalition.
Before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer
Protection, United States House of Representatives. Sept. 11.

Heins, M. (1993). Sex, Sin and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars. New York: The New Press.

Hijirida, K., & Yoshikawa, M. (1987). Japanese Language and Culture for Business and Travel. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Home Office. (1979). Committee on obscenity and film censorship. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.

Howitt, D., & Cumberbatch, G. (1990). Pornography: Impacts and Influences. A review of available research evidence on the effects of pornography. : Commissioned by the British Home Office Research and Planning Unit.

Kutchinsky,
B. (1991). "Pornography and Rape: Theory and Practice? Evidence from
Crime Data in Four Countries Where Pornography is Easily Available." International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 14, 47-64.

Schlosser,
E. (1997). "Most of the outside profits being generated by pornography
today are being earned by businesses not traditionally associated with
the sex industry." U. S. News & World Report, , February 10, pp.43-50.

The
persons involved "for" or "against" pornography do not identify, nor
necessarily see themselves comparably. Those "against" pornography and
for censorship are usually direct. They are against pornography and all
it implies to them. They may also be in favor of censoring other things
as well; such as materials they consider anti-religious or
pro-abortion. Often times those against pornography are an unusual
alliance of sex-negative feminists and religious fundamentalists. Those
"for" are not necessarily in favor of pornography but more usually
announce themselves as against censorship and for choice in private
adult matters such as abortion and religious beliefs. In other regards
they may be for "choice" in regard to abortion. This latter group may,
indeed be in favor of pornography and whatever it might imply to them.
In this case it would be a different spectrum of feminists that support
this cause.

One
of those dissenting in the vote was Charles H. Keating, Jr. He felt the
need to defend our country's sinking morality. Appointed by President
Nixon to the commission he was founder and president of the
anti-pornography group "Citizens for Decency through Law" (Yoakum,
1977). He was later convicted as one of the major offenders in the Bank
and Savings & Loan scandals of the 1980s (DeBenedictis, 1992).

I
have an impression that another of the driving forces to look at porn
again was the increasing prevalence of the "pocket book" (first
appearing in 1935) and the increasing availability of VCRs and porn
movies in the 1980s. In the past, pornography was mostly available to
the rich and privileged. Now as more and more pornography was
inexpensively getting to the masses the concern was something akin to:
"While rich, educated and conservative people can deal with it, the
masses can not." Anti-pornography censorship is a form of elitism where
the "antis" are convinced that they can restrain themselves from the
demoralizing power of SEM but others can not.

For
instance it included Charles Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, a
noted Right Wing conservative organization. It also included Reverend
Bruce Ritter who would later be indicted for child sex abuse (Diamond,
1990).

The
states of only Alaska and Nevada and the District of Columbia were an
exception. In these two states there was a positive correlation between
the distribution of sexual magazines and rape (Scott & Schwalm,
1988b).

In
the 1930's to the 1950's, with the advent and popularity of crime
comics in the West, from the United States, and Canada to Britain and
Australia, and elsewhere there was a similar outcry against their
alleged damaging influence on children. They were propertied to be
"criminogenic." Many obscenity laws were rewritten to include them. As
shown by Brannigan (1987), however, the actual evidence was against
their having any substantial influence on juvenile or adult offenses.

Tjaden
(1988) surveyed the impact of pornography as a source of adolescent
sexual information for American youth. He found that both male and
female adolescents listed porn as their least important source of sexual information.

Many murders and violent assaults in Japan were, on inspection, found to be the actions of boryokudan and yakuza
(protection and extortion) criminal gangs. Enhanced police efforts
specifically directed against these criminal elements are believed at
least partially responsible for the decreased incidence of murder and
violent assault.

The
U.S.government, aware of the community standard requirement, endeavors
to try its antipornography cases in communities it thinks most
conservative in religious, political and sexual matters rather than in
the community in which the alledged violation occured (Yoakum, 1977).

Among the earliest definitions of obscenity, used in the U.S. for more than 100 years was the so-called English Hicklin
definition. It held that "the test of obscenity is this, whether the
tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt
those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose
hands a publication of this sort may fall." Justices Black, Bok, Hand
and others have, over the years, essentially concluded the term is
basically undefinable in relation to sexual materials and the Court
itself has confused the term rather than defined it. From a legal point
of view it is long established in American juresprudence that any crime
must be known to be such before its commision; the government cannot, post hoc, establish something as illegal. Defining something as obscene occurrs after its production.

Court's
work (1984), particularly his analysis with its anti-pornography bias
and selective use of evidence., has been severely criticized (Brannigan
& Kapardis, 1986; Kutchinsky, 1994). Peculiarly he presents these
data on Singapore and elsewhere as if they support his anti-porn bias by considering that matters could be much worse if porn laws were liberalized in those communities.

Leo
Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist, has written: ". . . from the very
commencement of my activity, that horrible Censor question has
tormented me! I wanted to write what I felt; but at the same time it
occurred to me that what I would write would not be permitted, and
involuntarily I had to abandon the work. I abandoned and went on
abandoning, and meanwhile the years passed away." (Tolstoy, CKCKCK).

This
doesn't mean that zealous federal and state attorneys have not brought
charges of obscenity and won cases in those states. In so doing, for
the cases in question, however, community standards were not surveyed
or, if surveyed, not allowed by the judge into evidence. In other
instances where the charges were made, the individual charged pled
guilty to save legal fees, and other costs.

In
the USA lately some are attributing the drop in crime as due to
decreased drug use (U.S. News & World Reports, 1998). Drugs were
and are not a major factor in any of the other countries we mentioned.
If anything, we would have to say that drug use was, during the time in
question, on the increase in those societies rather than vice versa.

Some
would likely credit an increased punishment associated with sex crimes
leading to a decease in their frequency. Other than in China, however,
there is no evidence that such punishments have increased over the
years in the locals studied.

A
study by Ira Reiss (1986; pp. 183-184) of national samples of women who
go or do not go to see pornographic films found that those who went
were more, not less, gender equal than those who chose not to go. They
did not see such films as encouraging the subordination of women. Those
women who chose not to go typically had stereotypically conservative
ideas of the roles proper for women, e.g., only 72 percent of those who
chose not to attend X-rated films were more likely to approve of the
statement: "Do you approve or disapprove of a married woman earning
money in business or industry if she has a husband capable of
supporting her?" Of those women who voluntarily view X-rated films, 81
percent approved. The difference is statistically significant.

Founder of the National Organization for Women Betty Friedan (1965) is against women riling against pornography. She writes:

"Get
off the pornography kick and face the real obscenity of poverty. No
matter how repulsive we may find pornography, laws banning books or
movies for sexually explicit content could be far more dangerous to
women. The pornography issue is dividing the women's movement and
giving the impression on college campuses that to be a feminist is to
be against sex. . ."

On
June 26, 1997 President Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act
forwarded to him by Congress. It was their attempt to control and limit
SEM on the internet. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled the Act was
an "unconstitutional intrusion on adults' free speech." Justice John
Paul Stevens wrote for the court majority "Notwithstanding the
legitimacy and importance of the congressional goal of protecting
children from harmful materials, we agree with [the lower-court ruling]
that the statute abridges "freedom of speech" Protected by the First
Amendment.

The
right to free speech and free press does not include the right to
subject unwilling individuals to sexual utterences, materials or
displays they find obscene. Suh unwilling persons, however, cannot
deprive access to others who welcome such.

The
Free Speech Coalition, an adult film industry support group, has
advocated, and adult film makers have adopted, a condom-only policy for
their productions. In other ways also they work to improve the products
being offered to the public (Douglas, 1998). Erotic films can also
promote contraceptive use and recipracative consensual adult
relationships.